The Puffer Forum

Hey, lately I've noticed that my puffers beaks have been growing. I got advice from my local fish store. I decided I wanted to use food techniques such as feeding it snails or clams. What are your suggestions?

Snails, mussels, clams, shrimp with shell on, and small cray fish are all good choices to help wear down puffer beaks. If you feed shell fish then open them just a bit to allow the puffer to break into it on his own and get the teeth down.

Hard-shelled foods are only to PREVENT overgrown teeth, not for trimming them down. Excellent article on feeding those crunchy foods in our Library. Once their teeth are overgrown so much it is inhibiting their ability to eat, they muct be hand-trimmed by their owner. Another article describing the procedure, with step-by-step pics also in the Library.

Prevention is always better than cure...
OK, I'm a puffer virgin – looking, lurking, and reading before I set up my first puffer tank, so it is probably too early for me to be offering suggestions, but I have loads of small empty ramshorn, apple, and pond snail shells in my freshwater tanks, from those guys who died along the way into full growth. I usually just crush them between my fingers and add them to the substrate.
For puffers, how would it be if I stuffed the empty shells with fresh or frozen soft food – so Mr Puffer would have to chew his way down to get at the good stuff?
As an ex-zoologist I know the value of 'entertaining' any living creature. In addition, helping with dental care would surely be worth an extra minute or two – what do you guys think about this idea..?

Plenty of folks do that too.

I dont want to hijack this thread, but I have just a quik question. Even if you feed your puffer lots of hard foods like snails to help wear down its teeth, will you still need to trim them in the future? Or can trimming be avoided completely?

It depends on the individual fish. Some never need trimming, others need it once in a while. Some species, modestus and south americans in particular, generally need trimming every few months no matter how much crunchy stuff you feed them.